To launch Foot Locker’s first retail app, we needed to do something that would get sneakerheads talking online. When they talk about their love of shoes, it’s like a language of its own, so instead of a typical campaign to advertise the app, we created a feature in the app to get sneakerheads spreading the word for us. Introducing Shoemoji -- a set of shoe emoticons that upgrade any sneaker chat.

Shoemoji features over 80 individually drawn shoes, all minutely detailed to satisfy the obsessive nature of sneakerheads. Each shoe was digitally crafted -- essentially rebuilt -- using accurate visualizations of every texture, layer and colorway in the particular illustrative style of other emojis. The styles were selected were iconic, Foot Locker-stocked shoes.

Shoemoji was integrated into the Foot Locker app for launch, so sneakerheads were able to discover this playful feature among the rest of the more functional app.

Sneakerheads’ immediate use of Shoemojis and the enthusiastic coverage by media resulted in more than 800,000 Shoemoji messages in seven days, not to mention 150,000 downloads of the app.

Since the launch, new Shoemojis are constantly being released in line with new shoe releases, driving users back to Foot Locker’s retail app for the update whenever they talk about new shoes.